The Persuaders (MC101)

What is advertising? Is it informing the public about a product or service, or is it just a fancy way of persuading them to buy it? I think it's a mix of both. We watched a movie in my MC101 class called The Persuaders which talked about different theories advertisers had to successfully get into the consumer's mind...
The first was Clotaire Rapaille who thought he had a way to figure out the consumer's hidden desires. He said no one can ever really know why people do what they do. He had a theory that people have three parts of the brain, the reptilian brain that controlled all the basic instincts, the limbic brain that controlled emotions, and the cortex that controlled higher reasoning. His theory stated that the reptilian brain always won. Always. When interviewed, he used the example of small cars versus big ones. He said even if environmentalists urge people to buy smaller cars, they will buy the bigger ones because the small ones are too small. I don't really believe that because I think that some people care about the environment too and want small cars. After all, everyone has different taste.
Frank Luntz was another man who said advertisers should tell consumers what they want to hear. He said, "Eighty percent of life is emotion, and only twenty percent is intellect." He elaborated by explaining that he could always change what people were thinking about, but he could never change what they feel because that is something deeper. He talked about word choice and how that is an important factor of gaining consumer trust. His example was politicians using "climate change" instead of "global warming" because it made the public feel more comfortable.
I agree with Frank Luntz more because people rely more on their personal feelings and want the producers to make them feel special and like they need the product. However, I also believe in the right for the people to know what exactly the product is that they are getting. I don't like those cell phone or insurance commercials that just say how they are better than the other. They should spend more time trying to be there for the consumer and trying to be genuine than just competing.